Mason Produce Co. v. Harry C. Gilbert Co.

141 N.E. 613, 194 Ind. 462, 1923 Ind. LEXIS 36
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1923
DocketNo. 24,508
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 141 N.E. 613 (Mason Produce Co. v. Harry C. Gilbert Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mason Produce Co. v. Harry C. Gilbert Co., 141 N.E. 613, 194 Ind. 462, 1923 Ind. LEXIS 36 (Ind. 1923).

Opinion

Ewbank, C. J.

Appellant sued for damages but recovered nothing. The complaint counted upon alleged negligence of appellee, while acting as a merchandise broker, in failing to notify appellant that a party who had ordered a carload of beans by telegraph through appellee’s agency had thereafter directed that the order be canceled, and had refused to sign a written contract of purchase. The defendant answered by a denial. There was a general finding for the defendant and a judgment against the plaintiff for costs. Overruling the motion for a new trial is assigned as error, under which appellant first insists that the finding is not sustained by sufficient evidence. The evidence consisted wholly of a stipulation in writing setting out certain telegrams and correspondence, and two depositions, taken in Colorado and Kentucky, respectively, which also set out certain telegrams and correspondence. There is no conflict in any of this evidence. A single [464]*464witness was produced and sworn in the court, but he testified only to his name, where he worked, and how long he had been employed there, an objection being sustained to all his other offered testimony.

Of the facts averred in the complaint, the evidence proved, without dispute, that plaintiff was a corporation, doing business in Colorado, engaged in selling food products at wholesale; that defendant was a corporation doing business at Indianapolis, Indiana, engaged in the business of selling such food products as a broker; that a company at Lexington, Kentucky, telegraphed to appellee at Indianapolis, an order for a “car recleaned Colorado Pinto beans this year’s crop eight cents per pound F. O. B. Colorado * * *. for car rolling now en route.” Appellee replied by telegraph with an offer of “Colorado Pintos seven seventyfive prompt shipment”, and confirmed the offer by a letter which stated that “we did not offer any cars in transit.” But on the forenoon of the day that the letter of confirmation was written, the company at Lexington replied to appellee’s telegram by wiring the words: “Offer seven half car new Colorado Pinto shipment next week”; that this telegram was sent about noon on a Saturday; that because Saturday afternoon was a half holiday, it did 'not reach appellee until 5 p.m., and the next day (Sunday) appellee telegraphed appellant for authority to accept the offer; that about noon on the next day thereafter (Monday), appellee received from appellant by telegraph authority to do so, and then wired to the Lexington Company “Confirm car Colorado Pintos seven fifty per your wire Saturday”, and the same day wrote and mailed to the Lexington company a letter which was received the day following, acknowledging receipt of the wire Saturday, stating that “We have confirmation this afternoon from the Mason Produce Co. on car as per sales ticket enclosed, [465]*465and have in turn wired you confirmation on this car. * * * Contract will be along in a few days which we will forward for your signature”; that after receiving the telegram last above mentioned (and before receiving the letter of confirmation, but whether before or after that letter was mailed does not appear), the Lexington company telegraphed to appellee to “cancel offer Colorado Pinto. Bought elsewhere. Delayed too long”, which was received by appellee the same day (Monday). That evening, appellee sent the Lexington company a “night letter” telegram, saying it was too late to cancel, and the next day wrote a letter to the same effect, stating that appellee had wired confirmation of the order as soon as authority was received from the shippers in Colorado, and before the wire to cancel the order had been sent; that appellant forwarded to appellee a form of written contract of sale by appellant to said Lexington company of a car load of 60,000 pounds of Pinto beans at “7.50 per cwt. F. O. B. Greely, Colo.”, on terms and conditions as therein stated, bearing the signature of appellant, and dated on Monday, the day the telegram of confirmation was sent, which appellee forwarded to the Lexington company for execution by it; but on the next Friday, that company returned the contract to appellee unsigned, with a letter stating that “you delayed too long in answering”, and suggesting that if the car had been already started, it be diverted to some other point, as the company could not accept shipment; that appellee did not in any manner communicate to appellant the fact that the Lexington company had telegraphed to cancel the order and had refused to sign the written contract of purchase until more than three weeks after appellee received such telegram of attempted cancellation, being after the car load of beans had been loaded [466]*466and shipped, and had travelled to Lexington, and on the third day after it there had been rejected by the consignee; that the beans remained in appellant’s warehouse until the Saturday after appellee had received the telegram refusing to take them and directing that the order be canceled when 60,000 pounds were loaded into a car and shipped, and during all of said time, including the time when they' were so shipped, the beans were worth $7.50 per cwt. (being the full selling price) at the place of shipment; that, when they were shipped, a draft on the Lexington company for the price at $7.50 per cwt. with the bill of lading attached, was forwarded to a bank at Lexington, but the drawee refused to pay it; that the freight to Lexington, Kentucky was $581.91, and when the beans arrived there, they were rejected by the consignee, and appellant was compelled to pay such freight and to incur expense for demurrage, unloading, storage, insurance, and another broker’s commission, and when they were sold on the market there, they brought only $7.37 per cwt. and the new purchaser did not pay the freight from Colorado; that after receiving telegrams and letters from the Lexington company directing that its order be canceled, refusing to sign the written contract of sale, and giving notice that the beans would not be received, if shipped, appellee wrote to said company telling it that the order could not be canceled, and that if it persisted in such refusal, the matter would be laid before the “Enforcement Division of the Food Administration”, and that they would decide against said company; but that the “Food Administration”, when its aid was afterward invoked, refused to interfere in the matter.

Counsel for appellee insist that this evidence proves the negotiation of a binding contract of sale be-tween appellant and the Lexington company, and contend that when appellee had done .this, its [467]*467duties as a broker were ended, and that it therefore could not be guilty of negligence in failing to give appellant notice of facts afterward learned concerning the purchaser’s attempted cancellation of the order, and declared purpose to refuse to accept and pay for the beans. But counsel are in error as to both propositions. The telegrams exchanged between appellee and the Lexington company before the latter gave notice that its order was canceled and that it would not accept and pay for the carload of beans, did not mention appellant’s name, nor indicate in any way that the sale was being negotiated in its behalf, nor designate the quantity, except as “one car”, though the contract afterward submitted for execution stated that a car should be “not less than 36,000 pounds” and that the quantity sold was 60,000 pounds, and the latter quantity was actually shipped.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
141 N.E. 613, 194 Ind. 462, 1923 Ind. LEXIS 36, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mason-produce-co-v-harry-c-gilbert-co-ind-1923.